Geek Pick: Amazon Echo Wall Clock Tells Time With Tech

We totally get it if you don’t feel super comfortable expanding Amazon’s influence to each and every intelligent object in your home. But of all the ways to expand your Alexa ecosystem the new Amazon Echo Wall Clock is one of the most innocuous, and at $29.99, one of the most affordable. Basically this clock lets you easily see Alexa timers.

While some watches and clocks are known for their intricate jewelry-like beauty and craftsmanship, the Amazon Echo Wall Clock isn’t much more than a big 10-inch plastic circle with some numbers on it. It’s what you would expect from Bezos, who’s willing to take a loss on hardware if it means advancing other agendas like multiple Alexa products in every home.

And the Amazon Echo Wall Clock needs those other Amazon products, specifically some kind of Echo device, to even function. It’s not a standalone product. So if you don’t already have an Echo factor that into the price, with the cheapest last-gen Echo Dots being about the price of the clock itself.

It’ll take some time, and you might need your phone, but your Echo Wall Clock sets up by pairing to your Echo device through Bluetooth. One Echo can even power multiple clocks with room to spare for other accessories. And since everything is online, you don’t need to worry about manually adjusting clock hands to get the time right.

But along with just telling time the Echo Wall Clock’s big gimmick is visualizing Alexa timers. You still need to speak into the Echo to set them, but now you can see timers tick down on the clock itself through glowing lights on the outer edge. Different combinations of lights and speeds convey timers over one hour as well as multiple timers. The visual aide makes it much easier to keep yourself on track compared to just waiting for an alarm to go off.

For more on the Amazon Echo Wall Clock check out the extensive on our sister site PCMag.com. And for other weird Amazon products refresh yourself on Amazon’s entire Alexa lineup including smart microwaves and smart amps.